Fans finally finish Half-Life remake Black Mesa

A fan-made update eight years in the making is finally ready, as the team behind Black Mesa: Source announce a September release date for their HD version of Half-Life 1.

Black Mesa – it’s (almost) done

Not only do the makers of Black Mesa share some of the same talent as original Half-Life creators Valve, but they also have the same problem with release dates. But it looks like the remake of the original Half-Life game is finally finished, and is due out on 14th September.‘On September 14th you will see the first release of Black Mesa! This will include our re-envisioning of Half-Life all the way up to Lambda Core. We believe this is a great way to provide a complete-feeling 8-10 hour experience with a solid ending, make our fans happy and help us make the best overall game possible,’ wrote project leader Carlos Montrero on his forum .

The game will be free to download and you can already snag a copy of the soundtrack as a pay as you please purchase.As you can see the remake isn’t quite finished, but the Lambda Core is the last stage of the game set on Earth, before the game takes a nosedive in quality amidst the controversial sections set in the alien world of Xen.Montrero is still planning to update these sections, as well as recreating a version of the game’s original deathmatch multiplayer, but ‘instead of making you wait we are giving you Black Mesa as soon as it’s ready!’The project to create Black Mesa started in 2004, shortly after the release of Half-Life 2 and Half-Life: Source – an official update of the original game from Valve, that many fans were disappointed didn’t go further.Despite being eight years in the making though Black Mesa is still coming out before Half-Life 3 has even been announced. The only Half-Life games Valve has released in the interim are 2006’s Episode One and 2007’s Episode Two (although technically Portal is set in the same universe).There’s still no real clue as to when Valve intends to release the next official game, although the assumption is that they’ll skip ahead to Half-Life 3 and a new graphics engine rumoured to be called Source 2.Video:Check out the Black Mesa trailer